Reflections on the Conflict in Colombia

By Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes

On February 4th, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Colombia and worldwide to protest the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del pueblo/Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army). Online and media debates have been rife with arguments that are increasingly polarizing an issue that requires a far more complex attentiveness. We are so quick to point fingers while the binary of "for or against" rings familiar for both U.S. and Colombian citizens, as the rhetoric of anti-terrorism proliferates, particularly in this post-9/11 world, conflating neo-liberal politics with State heroics. The notion of the nation's 'internal enemy' has been amplified in the social imaginary, allowing for 'national security' to extend its reaches into the folds of the everyday, impinging on what once were, for many of us privileged with citizenship in the United States, assumed freedoms. For Colombia, the effects of Uribe's Democratic Security and Defense Policy remain alarming as such polarization mandates patriotic allegiance from the nation's citizenry, and freedoms are also interfered for the promise of the public's protection. And yet, the complexity of this moment cannot be reduced to this alone. A vigilant inquiry would require a more profound exploration of the socio-political histories and present, of Colombia's internal politics, and of U.S-Colombia relations.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

At the beginning of 2007 the Colombian government presented the Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Social Development 2007-2013, better known as Phase II of Plan Colombia. The goal of this strategy is to seek support from the international community for the consolidation of what the (Colombian) government considers the achievements of both Plan Colombia I (1999-2006) and the policy of Democratic Security.

Just as happened with the first phase of Plan Colombia, the second phase is now being discussed in the United States Congress without having been presented to the Colombian Congress. Nevertheless, just as in the case of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), its passage faces serious difficulties, due to opposition by Democrats stemming from persistent human rights violations, particularly of union leaders and labor organizers in Colombia, and because of the para-political scandal, which has seen an important number of Congress members who are part of the Uribe government being prosecuted or in prison for their ties to paramilitary groups.

Thousands of Campesinos Gather in Arauca to Give Testimony

By Mayra Moreno, CPP team

Located on Colombia’s mid-eastern border with Venezuela, Arauca is known as one of the most volatile departments (or states) in the country. The presence of oil companies and illegal armed groups, and its location in a geographic region that is strategic for war purposes leads to it being one of the most militarized areas of the country. The high levels of violence coincide with extremely high rates of poverty, despite Arauca’s abundance of natural resources.

Thousands of people attended a large public hearing in Saravena, Arauca on September 27. That Thursday, individuals were invited to speak out against the crimes against humanity that they either experienced firsthand or witnessed. It was also an opportunity for individuals to actually document, with the assistance of lawyers, those experiences that would otherwise remain only in their memory, separate from any judicial process. In a country with staggering levels of impunity, having an official record of a human rights violation is the first step in trying to diminish the invisibility that engulfs such abuses.

The Colombian armed forces committed 955 extrajudicial executions between July 2002 and June 2007, according an investigation carried out by a coalition of 11 Colombian human rights organizations and released in October. Of these killings only two have resulted in a judicial conviction.

The number of killings by Colombia’s armed forces represents a 65% increase over the previous five-year period from 1997 to 2002. Since the last five years represent the most intense period of US training for the Colombian military, the study raises serious questions about the reasons for such a dramatic hike in killing by the US military’s trainees. A number of the military units charged in the report with killing civilians have been “vetted” (approved) for US training and other assistance.

Guardian (UK) and other sources

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing demands from his own Labor Party and the Trade Union Council to distance himself from George Bush in Colombia policy – by blocking arms sales and withdrawing all military aid to the US president’s staunchest Latin American ally, Colombia.

More than 200 leaders of the Party published a statement on the eve of the Party’s national conference this week to “end military aid to Colombia” until its government implements the recommendations of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights. Britain is the second largest supplier of military aid to Colombia, after the United States.

By Janice Gallagher

How can small, rural farmers respond to the forces of global trade and climate change?
How is a campesino (peasant) movement built amidst war and threats of displacement?
What does economic solidarity look like in rural Colombia?

These were some of the many questions that led the Antioquia Peasant Association (ACA) to organize a week-long combination conference/tour/exchange in June with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe de Antioquia, a neighboring municipality. The ACA has worked for two years with farmers from seven different communities in Eastern Antioquia, an area that has been especially hard-hit by guerrilla and paramilitary violence, to figure out how to provide for themselves and their families in the midst of war. Part of the ACA’s strategy for assisting these farmers is to bring them face to face with other farmers who have faced similar circumstances to discuss how they have moved forward. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe de Antioquia has worked with farmers for 11 years in 26 communities and during this trip the two groups explored their answers to these big questions:

Four new witnesses in a U.S. lawsuit against the Alabama-based Drummond coal company have alleged the company had close links to illegal paramilitary groups in Colombia that murdered three local union leaders.